Caribou - A Work in Progress

Finally 8F (-13C) and sunshine. It was a lovely sunrise with beautiful of pastel colours.

I have wanted to do a series of paintings of animals that have either antlers or horns.

For the first one I drew the antlers and then started drawing parts of the Caribou in behind them rather than do a head study of the animal.

In the background I lightly sketched in the head.

I will post this drawing at a later date once more work on it has been completed.

Strumming - A Work in Progress

It is a cold day -6F (-21C) and with the wind blowing feeling like -10F (-23C), but it is sunny which is something to enjoy.

I pulled out this painting of my daughter Christine that I had started a couple of years ago (see post on 19 October 2011).

First I started by painting her shoes which would complete the lower half of her body; although I may wash pale blue over her pants.

Continuing with the black paint which was a mix of French ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and a touch of alizarin crimson I added more shading on the guitar, guitar strap and darkened the sun glasses.

Using a wash of raw sienna I painted in the neck and bridge of the guitar.

With a pale wash of alizarin crimson I added a little colour into her cheeks, ear and neck.

I will post this painting at a later date as more work on this painting is completed.

Sully - A Work in Progress

Today I was painting with the Buckhorn Tuesday Painting Group and I chose to work on a portrait of Christine's dog Sully.

I transferred the image (see post on 13 January 2014) onto Omni 70lb. drawing paper and working from left to right started putting in the background shading and defining the outline of the body.














I will post this painting at a later date once more of the work on Sully has been completed.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog and enjoy the artwork. I hope you will return often.

Morning Lake 2 - A Work in Progress

8F (-13C) and dropping steadily to -6F (-14C) with a lot of wind causing white out conditions and drifting snow; although around noon the sun came out and visibility was finally clear.

I pulled this painting out that I had started last month (see post on 08 Dec 13) and using French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna made a grey and painted in the distant shore.














I added a few rocks into the base of the island and making a darker mixture of the same two colours painted in the silhouettes of the trees.

I will post this piece at a later date once the painting has been completed.

Co-Co

It was -14F (-25.6C) and it had been bright and sunny even though the snow was crunching under my feet as I headed down to do the barn chores. That was all changed in less than an hour as the sun was hidden behind clouds and it had started to snow and the wind was picking up again.

I came across a couple of old sketch books that I used back in the early 70's. My art work certainly has changed a fair amount since then.

This is a drawing I had started of one of my second horse. Her name when I purchased her for back board was Co-Co and no one knew that she was in foal until she presented me with a lovely filly.

I later registered her with the Pinto Horse Association as Freedom's Lady Anne. She was very versatile and was shown in Conformation Hunter over Fences and Under Saddle, Pleasure Driving, Western Pleasure, Trail, Reining, Barrel Racing, Pole Bending, Keyhole and Flag Race.

Yellow Sky 4-6 - Three Works in Progress

We are having a heat wave of sorts. It is 14F (-10C) and the wind is howling making the temperature feel more like -4F (-20C) and the snow is blowing and I have just returned from doing the barn chores.

It is time to put the kettle on for a hot cup of tea and get myself warm, then make some breakfast before I do some painting.


Yellow Sky 4

With it being such a cold and grey day I decided that I would like to brighten things up a little and used a limited palette of burnt sienna and raw sienna to paint morning skies.

But the nice thing with using these two colours in a sky is that they can also be used for sunsets as well, neither of which I will see today due to the cloud cover and snow storm.


Yellow Sky 5

I worked on all three paintings at the same time starting with a wash of pure raw sienna and then gradually adding burnt sienna into the sky creating interest.

I was going to finish these paintings today but I had a fire in the fireplace and a book to read that were calling my name. So I will post these paintings at a later date when they are completed.

Yellow Sky 6

Sail Softly On By I - A Work in Progress

Another day in the deep freeze -17F (-27C) and more snow for the afternoon with high winds. Oh joy!

This is another sketch I did while on a two week vacation in the Jardines del Rey archipelago (Garden of the King) a number of years ago (see post on 22 January 2014).

Most of the drawing has been inked in and I will post this piece at a later date once I have completed the mother and child watching the boats.

On the Saturday morning after spending a week at the Tryp Cayo Coco we took a taxi to go to the Iberostar Daiquiri. Cayo Coco is linked by a short causeway to Cayo Guillermo to the west and it wasn't long before we were settled into our room and could go out and explore.













The beach was well groomed and the turquoise water inviting. The facilities while smaller than the Tryp were well maintained, the staff extremely friendly and helpful. The differences between the two resorts were like night and day.

On the second day we saw a diver walking along the beach and asked him where the dive shop was and what the equipment was like. He pointed to a boat belching out black diesel smoke called "La Perla" (The Pearl) and said that at least four of the people who were on the last dive with him became sick from inhaling the diesel exhaust and that his tank failed when he was down 50' (15.5m) and fortunately his dive buddy was close by and they shared his tank to get him back to the surface.

We thanked him for the information and decided that we would not dive this week but would go on two tours instead. I wanted to go and take the catamaran tour again and Ron wanted to take the sped boat tour with snorkeling through the mangroves and we had a wonderful time on both.